The worst travel days of the year are upon us Americans, who have by today hopefully reached their destinations and are giving thanks for uneventful trips. But by now a portion of us will have dealt with overcrowded highways leading to the airport, delayed flights, and storage wars in the unruly overhead bins.

As miserable as it is on the ground or in the air, when seen at a remove, all of this chaos looks rather beautiful. In honor of the American holidays Foursquare has posted this infographic time-lapse map tracking US travel at this time last year, starting at Halloween and spanning until Christmas. The blue arcs represents air travel, the red veins are train journeys and white represents cars on highways.It's not comprehensively accurate in that this is merely a map of people who bothered "checking in" on Foursquare at the beginnings and ends of their trips, but it's enough to give you a rough idea. What I found surprising was the part at the bottom seemingly indicating train travel is more popular than our beloved cars:

Being a huge fan of train travel myself, I'd like to see more high-speed rail in this country in the future, and a lot more red on this map of red, white and blue.

The latest design news, jobs & events. Straight to you every other week.

Join over 300,000 designers who stay up-to-date with the Core77 newsletter...

In Part 3, we looked at how the US Military uses shared informational awareness to coordinate millions of troops through collaborative platforms. In this post, we'll look at how mainstream technology—i.e.social media—is being adapted for disasters relief purposes.Social Technologies for Disaster ResponseFounded in 2008, Ushahidi was created as a website...

In Part 2, we discussed the challenges the international disaster response community faces. In this post, we'll look at how the US Military creates collaborative information systems between millions of soldiers.Building the Hive Mind: The United States MilitaryThe Military in the Information AgeCoordinating nearly 1.5 million troops in five military...

In Part 1 we discussed the various organizations that take part in international disaster response, including the United Nations and the Red Cross. In this post, we'll look at disaster response vs humanitarian aid, as well as the challenges that disaster response faces on the global stage.Distinguishing Disaster Response From...

This is the first in a 4-part series from Cameron Tonkinwise, sharing learnings from a two-year project from the New School's Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability (DESIS) Lab. Amplifying Creative Communities, works to research, promote and amplify community-based solutions for sustainability.This is the first in a 4-part series from...